Have you ever wondered how many public skateparks are out there??? Have you ever wondered how many get built in a year??? The first question is almost impossible to answer. Public skateparks started being built in the 1970’s and continued at a very slow pace through the 80’s and 90’s. Once the new millennium hit public skateparks exploded across the U.S. This explosion happened so fast that it made things very difficult to keep track of.

However, in this modern age of social network sites and online newspapers it makes tracking skateparks much easier. Last year our group of volunteers carefully tracked public skateparks being built across the nation. We spent countless hours interviewing city officials, researching newspaper articles and following city council minutes.

Our goal was to find out how many skateparks are being built every year in the U.S. Also we are looking at how many square feet are being dedicated annually to public skateparks. Plus we are following the growing trends in skatepark build methods. As a result, we classified each build method into a Skatepark Type. The following is a list of five distinguished Skatepark Types you see being built in the U.S.

2) Poured in Place Concrete and Precast Concrete: This method involves traditional poured concrete, shotcrete installations and installed precast concrete. This method is also known as In-Ground Precast.

Poured in Place Concrete/Precast Concrete built in Holland, MI.

3) Steel Prefab: This method consist of steel framed prefabricated equipment with either a steel or composite plastic later.

5) Kickplate Precast: This method involves concrete precast ramps with a steel connector plate connecting the ramps to the ground. The steel connector plate is also referred to as a “kickplate”. This method is also known as Above Ground Precast.

Kickplate Precast features steel connection plates at the bottom of the precasted ramp. This park was completed in Washington, D.C.

The following skateparks that we have tracked are estimates. Due to the large amount of public skateparks being built it is really difficult to track every single one especially the smaller projects. However, we put forth a great deal of time and effort compiling the data we collected. The listed skateparks include completed projects by a municipality, county or reservation. We did not include skateparks owned and operated by schools, churches, military bases or a private entity. Also if the park is a hybrid mix of concrete and modular features we go with the dominant feature. For example, if there is more steel equipment than concrete features in the park, then the park is labeled as a steel park and vice versa. The projects listed below we consider completed skateparks for 2011…

This graph shows the number of skateparks completed by Skatepark Type.

We also documented skatepark additions. This includes new phases, add alternates and new equipment added on to an existing skatepark. We documented the communities adding prefabricated or modular equipment, but it is difficult to track this by the square footage and measure each added piece of equipment. That is why it is marked NA. Here is what we found…

Skateparks Completed in 2011: 101

Skatepark Additions Competed in 2011: 13

Total Skatepark Projects Completed in 2011: 114

Skateparks Completed by the Square Foot in 2011: 845,205

Skateparks Additions Completed by the Square Foot 2011: 37,800

Total Skatepark Projects Completed by the Square Foot in 2011: 883,005

The Top Six States with the Most Skateparks Completed Per Square Footin 2011 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Skateparks Tracked by SPS in 2011